Although whales are famed for the massive size reached by some species, such as the blue whale (the largest animal to ever live), others are relatively small, like the pygmy right whale which grows to about 20 feet[1]. Though whales have many traits in common with fish (including fins and tails) they are classified as mammals under the Linnaean taxonomy classification system because they breathe air and lactate. Whales have a number of remarkable features including:

they decide when to breathe, rather than breathing unconsciously

they sleep 8 hours a day, yet need to be conscious to breathe

they can communicate with each other by making remarkably loud noises

these extraordinary noises can travel for miles under water

the females nurse their calves while swimming underwater

the males have a unique cooling system for their internal reproductive organs

whales, along with humans and horses, are some of the few mammal species that do not possess baculum (penile bone)

they have massive brains, much larger than the brains of other mammals

Taxonomy

There are two kinds of whales: toothed whales of the suborder Odontoceti, and whalebone (baleen) whales of the suborder Mysticeti.

Suborder Mysticeti: Baleen whales

Family Balaenidae: Right whales

Genus Balaena

Bowhead whale, Balaena mysticetus

Genus Eubalaena

North Atlantic right whale, Eubalaena glacialis

North Pacific right whale, Eubalaena japonica

Southern right whale, Eubalaena australis

Family Balaenopteridae: Rorquals

Subfamily Balaenopterinae

Genus Balaenoptera

Antarctic minke whale, Balaenoptera bonaerensis

Common minke whale, Balaenoptera acutorostrata

Bryde's whale, Balaenoptera brydei

Blue whale, Balaenoptera musculus

Fin whale, Balaenoptera physalus

Sei whale, Balaenoptera borealis

Subfamily Megapterinae

Genus Megaptera

Humpback whale, Megaptera novaeangliae

Family Eschrichtiidae

Genus Eschrichtius

Gray whale, Eschrichtius robustus

Family Neobalaenidae

Genus Caperea

Pygmy right whale, Caperea marginata

Suborder Odontoceti: Toothed whales

Family Monodontidae

Genus Delphinapterus

Beluga, Delphinapterus leucas

Genus Monodon

Narwhal, Monodon monoceros

Family Physeteridae: Sperm whales

Genus Physeter

Sperm whale, Physeter macrocephalus

Genus Kogia

Dwarf sperm whale, Kogia sima

Pygmy sperm whale, Kogia breviceps

Family Ziphidae: Beaked whales

Genus Berardius

Arnoux's beaked whale, Berardius arnuxii

Baird's beaked whale, Berardius bairdii

Subfamily Hyperoodontidae

Genus Hyperoodon

Northern bottlenose whale, Hyperoodon ampullatus

Southern bottlenose whale, Hyperoodon planifrons

Genus Indopacetus

Indo-Pacific beaked whale, Indopacetus pacificus

Genus Mesoplodon

Andrews' beaked whale, Mesoplodon bowdoini

Blainville's beaked whale, Mesoplodon densirostris

Gervais' beaked whale, Mesoplodon europaeus

Ginkgo-toothed beaked whale, Mesoplodon ginkgodens

Gray's beaked whale, Mesoplodon grayi

Hector's beaked whale, Mesoplodon hectori

Hubbs' beaked whale, Mesoplodon carlhubbsi

Perrin's beaked whale, Mesoplodon perrini

Pygmy beaked whale, Mesoplodon peruvianus

Sowerby's beaked whale, Mesoplodon bidens

Spade-toothed whale, Mesoplodon traversii

Stejneger's beaked whale, Mesoplodon stejnegeri

Strap-toothed whale, Mesoplodon layardii

True's beaked whale, Mesoplodon mirus

Genus Tasmacetus

Shepherd's beaked whale, Tasmacetus shepherdi

Genus Ziphius

Cuvier's beaked whale, Ziphius cavirostris

Origins

File:Whale evolution.jpgThe question of how whales and their relatives could have evolved from terrestrial mammals has taxed evolutionary biologists since Darwin's suggestion that they may have evolved from ancient bears.

"In North America the black bear was seen . . . swimming for hours with widely open mouth, thus catching, like a whale, insects in the water. Even in so extreme a case as this, if the supply of insects were constant, and if better adapted competitors did not already exist in the country, I can see no difficulty in a race of bears being rendered, by natural selection, more and more aquatic in their structure and habits, with larger and larger mouths, till a creature was produced as monstrous as a whale."

In more recent times molecular and fossil evidence has been used to suggest that modern whales and their relatives arose from ancient artiodactyls (even-toed ungulates) with the closest living relative of all whales being hippopotami.[3]
This kinship has been termed the whippo hypothesis.[4]
Evolutionary biologists estimate the last ancestor of whales and hippos lived about 25 million years ago,[5] which contrasts with the young earth creationist position that whales were created about 6000 years ago, before land animals .[6][7][8]

Whaling industry

Whales in literature

The Bible

Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.Jonah 1:17 (KJV)

The great fish that swallowed Jonah is often thought of as being a whale, although the translation of 'great fish' is not a precise designation of species but may indicate any physically large, ocean-going creature. The physical difficulty of having a human be swallowed by a whale and survive the intense pressure of diving, lack of air and acidic environment of the stomach, and the fact that the Bible says that God "prepared" the fish has led some to suggest the creature may be uniquely and specially prepared by God for the purpose. Alternatively, Jonah may have been simply protected by supernatural means.

Whales are mentioned in three other places in the King James Version of the Bible:

Genesis 1:21: "And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good."

Job 7:12: "Am I a sea, or a whale, that thou settest a watch over me?"

Ezekiel 32:2: "Son of man, take up a lamentation for Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say unto him, Thou art like a young lion of the nations, and thou art as a whale in the seas: and thou camest forth with thy rivers, and troubledst the waters with thy feet, and fouledst their rivers.

Fiction

Arguably the most famous book about whales is Herman Melville's Moby Dick, about a whaling-ship captain obsessed with hunting down the sperm whale (Moby Dick) which had bitten off one of his legs.